My good friend, Susan Whitehead, who is a homeschooling mother of 5 just like I am, created this little video about homeschooling that though  noting the difficulties, expresses appreciation for the blessings for homeschooling.

Homeschoolers have a secret. Our secret, which many people do not understand, is that homeschooling is more about family life than about school. Yes, the 3 R's are part of the homeschool equations, but when we start looking at the benefits that accompany a life where little children spend their days with their parent(s) and siblings, we see results that are priceless. As Susan states in her video:

-The joy of having children who are best friends.

-The pride of seeing a child master reading.

-The blessing of solid bonds with your children.

-The fun of learning together, reading aloud together, cooking together, cleaning together.....just time to be together as a family, creating memories that will last a lifetime.

Check Susan's  Mrs.Homeschool.com blog to find out what "inspired" her to create this lovely video.

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Susan balances being a mom to 5, a wife, a homeschool teacher, and a home business woman. She is really on the ball, but she has her struggles with getting everything done just like the rest of us.  Though I'm ahead of Susan  with the homeschooling, since only one of my five is still in high school, I have much to learn from Susan about business since she has successfully developed multiple streams of income to add to the family income.  She recently developed a website to help other homeschool moms learn how to earn income by setting up multiple revenue streams.

Her website is called MrsHomeschool.com and is all about the homeschool life coupled with learning how to work. She offers income earning  ideas suitable for children and parents, but especially for homeschool mothers.  Susan is particularly knowledgeable in using the internet as a tool for earning income and has had first hand experience that she can share with others.

This note I received  from Tapestry of Grace:

"Year 3 DE Upgrade is here!
We are excited to announce that we have completed the upgrade to  Tapestry of Grace/Digital Edition: Year 3 that we have been rolling out for each year plan since this past summer.

**Half-price Upgrade for Year 3 print customers**

For our print Year 3 customers, it’s never been a better time to add DE capabilities—like unlimited printing, the ability to search quickly, and (for laptop owners) portability—to your print copy. Not only can you still get a half-price discount off the DE year plan, but now you can also upgrade your supplement CDs to DE for free!

Tapestry of Grace/Digital Edition: Year 3

Vision Forum's dolls were not available when my daugher, Sara, was playing with dolls. We bought her an American Girl doll and she loved it. It became her "daughter".

Like the American Girl dolls, Vision Forum's dolls have clothing that relates to history. The neat thing about the Vision Forum dolls is that you can have one doll and then dress her for each history period that your child learns about. For instance, your little girls can act out history as they dress their doll in the available historical costumes. Liberty can cross the ocean to New England as Priscilla Mullins. She can be a guide to Lewis and Clark, helping them find the Northwest Passage as Sacagawea. She can serve ice cream at the White House as Dolley Madison or walk the deck of the Titanic as Nan Harper. What fun to let her climb the Alps as Maria von Trapp and sing "The Sound of Music" Also, each costume has a coordinating book available about the character from history. The books are wonderful, but any history story or biography about the time period or the historical character that your family reads aloud can accomplish the inspiration of the historically motivated play.

Vision Forum offers 4 dolls: Liberty, Jubilee, Abigail, Fidelia. They are all 18" dolls but each one has different features. You can choose the one that looks most like your family or just the one that you like the best!

So these dolls can serve two purposes....

an extension of your homeschool history studies or just for regular Mommy/Baby pretend play. When little girls play with their dolls, they are practicing to be a mother someday. A little girl looks to her mother as a role model and she can play out her mother role with her own dolls. This is the type of play that I loved to encourage in my daughter, Sara.

Detail Information about Liberty Dolls from Vision Forum.
(This information also pertains to the other 3 available dolls, Jubilee, Abigail, and Fidelia)
Liberty is made by the Goetz doll company and is exquisitely crafted.
Liberty has soft brown hair and lovely blue eyes.Liberty can stand and sit alone. As durable as she is lovely, Liberty is ready to be hugged and squeezed with love! Liberty comes wearing a feminine dress in pink, complete with socks and shoes.

Additional savings: Purchase two or more dolls and receive a 10% savings off the regular retail price. Or purchase the entire Beautiful Girlhood Doll Collection and receive a $55 savings!

Extra Information: Doll is 18" tall and is the same size as The American Girls Collection® dolls, but is not the same size as the Elsie Dinsmore doll. Liberty comes with a pink dress outfit and thirteen additional outfits are also available, sold separately.

Caring for Liberty: Liberty’s hair is very high quality and is fully rooted; it may be brushed with a plastic brush. Her hair can be washed with a mild shampoo and her body can be gently cleaned with a mild soap.

If you, like Sara, already have an American Girl doll, you might be interested in looking at Vision Forum's historical costumes that correspond with your family's homeschool studies.

This is a short and sweet sale notification for Vision Forum:

For four days only, Vision Forum is pleased to offer up to $100 in Instant Rebates on all qualifying online orders! This is your best opportunity to enjoy immediate savings on anything and everything at Vision Forum. Mix and match your favorite resources, add them to your shopping cart, and watch your order total drop by as much as $100!

Vision Forum  Adventure Toys for Boys or  Beautiful Toys for Girls

$325 Order (or more) = $100 Instant Rebate

$175 Order (or more) = $50 Instant Rebate

$95 Order (or more) = $25 [...] Continue Reading...

Is your child ready to learn to read? If so, you might like to take advantage of these last minute discounts for Christmas from Hooked on Phonics.  Hooked on Phonics will be running a number of sales over the next several weeks:

Click here for Hooked on Phonics

Deals Available Right Now:

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Free standard shipping on all non-payment plan U.S. orders. Expires 12/14/09.

35% off coupon HOP35.  (Expires 12/31/09.)  Hooked on Phonics routinely offers 20% off with coupons, but this is for 35% off. This is a great time to buy  if you need to start your child on Phonics and learning [...] Continue Reading...

In December most of us are looking forward to a little break from homeschool as we celebrate Christmas.  Every year I buy a few family gifts from Vision Forum.  They normally have wonderful specials and sales on items that make great Christmas presents.  A new line of toys called Grandfather's Classic Toys  is very popular with homeschool families.

For three more days, enjoy Vision Forum’s “December Kick-Off Special” and receive up to 50% off everything! Plus, take advantage of $5.00 flat-rate shipping on every order, regardless of size.

New items have been added to their 40%-50% off section, so [...] Continue Reading...

You simply can't afford to miss CurrClick's biggest event of the year, BLACK FRIDAY! HUNDREDS of TOTALLY FREE education resources! No Traffic, No Crowds, No Cost!
10:00 am CST Friday, Nov 27th through 10:00 am CST Saturday, Nov 28th.

Plus, get up to 50% off next semester's curriculum during our STOCKING UP YOUR SHELVES SALE!
Nov 27th at 10:00am CST through Tuesday, Dec 15th.

By Julie Simmons

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Avoid Homeschool Burnout...
I've heard it said that if you are new to homeschooling, and you haven't felt like crying several times in the first few weeks, then you are not really homeschooling. We feel the full impact of our own character flaws as well as the faults in our children.  Part of homeschooling is developing patience. Now is the time to adjust, to find better ways of doing things that aren't working out, and develop good habits while establishing a routine with a flexible schedule.
A plan and a schedule...
is of [...] Continue Reading...

For three days only, vision forum has these collections and more on sale for 50% off!. Just in time for Christmas shopping. If you have been putting off a purchase, waiting for a sale, now would be the time to take advantage of the liberal price breaks on these items. The screen shot on this page is only a SAMPLE of what is available from Vision Forum at 50% for these 3 days.

Essential Family Literature Collection,Jonathan Park , Western Civilization 20 volume DVD history collection — and 12 other exciting sets. To explore all the featured [...] Continue Reading...

Bible & Spiritual growth

There were many outspoken proponents of education in the time our nation was established. One was Benjamin Rush. He was a doctor during the Revolutionary War.  He happened to be one of John Adams' best friends and he was his  physician, as well.

Benjamin Rush said,

"I beg leave to remark, that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments."
Benjamin Rush

This quote is encouraging [...] Continue Reading...